Creative Catch Up

I've with held my lastest creations from the abyss of blogspot - because most of them were Christmas presents. Now the cat is out of the bag and I can show them off.

I did 2 table runners
4 pairs of socks
felted bag
2 beanies
1 sweater (almost finished)
1 vest

Figgy Pudding table runner for Phyllis

The other 1/2 of the figgy pudding for Shelby.... one was greens/red/whites the other was brown and light blue....
One of the striped socks .... Phyllis got these
And this beanie I THREW together at the 11th hour for Steve (Shelby's future Mr. )
Figgy pudding from a distance.

.... can anyone tell me how to change the layout to something else besides just plain green? The templates offered by blogspot on not all that exciting....

To Frog or Not to Frog

Any one that knows Ben and I knows that we have a soft spot in our hearts for little animals and creatures (as long as they are not venomous or require a stable --- at least at this point in our lives).
Ben's brother Jordan recently left to the MTC - and has gifted us his frogs. We agreed to foster the frogs until sunday when we can hand them off to an unsuspecting extended family member. Jordan hadn't fed them in a week - and they were just in a glass box with rocks and water. Talk about quality of life. So Ben and I got them a bag of crickets (**shivers**) and a plastic log to bounce around on.

They are korean fire belly toads. It is becoming increasingly difficult not to become attached to these little dudes. There are several "CONS" to this decision including crickets (**shivers**) and my house is inches away from becoming a petting zoo.

For christmas Ben got me this cute goldie - his name is Chibbols. He's my favorite so far. Never complains, knocks over the garbage can, takes up my sleeping space, and doesn't even stink. Just makes bubble noises when he's hungry.


This one just got a hair cut and RULES THE WORLD. :) but is the most darling.
This thing needs no explanation.

.... oh yeah.... and Ben :) He is not classified in my 'zoo' but certainly needs to be cared for fed and cleaned up after :) jk .... sorta.

.... all in my one bed room apartment. Sigh....

How to Get Blood Stains out of Fabric

The title of this entry reflects some of the craziness of the last week or so.

First I want to say that things are really okay. Even though these are tales of madness - we are gearing up for christmas, trying to keep CHRIST in mind, doing crafts, cooking caramels, and poor Ben can't figure out what to get his wife :)

The picture below is a pot of sugar water and lemon peel. Yeah. Ben gets the tick to cook late at night - and earlier this week he wanted to make candied lemon things at like 11:30 at night. I managed to stay up with him until midnight - and had to keep taping him... 'ben you're falling asleep - go check your boiling pot'. And he'd jump up - stir - and fall right back to sleep. When I called it a day - "Ben i'm going to bed - you're asleep.... how are you going to finish this project?"
He looked at me through slits in his eyes and said 'I'll set an alarm' .
The Holy Ghost tried to warn me. As I was laying in bed he was telling me .... Don't leave Ben alone.... he won't wake up'.... but i didn't listen.
At 1 am I was awakened to Ben running this pot out the front door and being surrounded by smoke. Dudes, i'm not kidding. It was so bad. Eyes burning, throat stinging, cough cough cough cough. We would have to run in the house - open a window and run back out again. We put a box fan one of the windows and left them all open all night.
... still a little bit of a smokey smell.
Lesson - Ben now has a cooking curfew of 11pm and GET A FREAKING SMOKE DETECTOR!!


Wednesday night Reggie dug into Ben's backpack and ate an entire box of those chocolate raspberry sticks. Oi. There was 2 days of explosive dog diarrhea and we kept a rented rug doctor on stand by. Thank my lucky stars it happened on my day off.
There are no pictures for this event - for your benefit.
Lesson - Keep all food above waist height.

This mystery has been going on for several months. Ben will randomly get big cuts on the back of his left arm. I tried to show you here - and you can only see the new one - not all the old scars. Whats strange is Ben doesn't remember where/when/how he got these. And they are not just little paper cuts. How can you miss that??

This morning Ben woke up with another cut and I found a large blood stain on the bed! AAAHHH!!! This is what is looks like after Ben spit the heck out of it. It's on the side away from me.... there is nothing sharp on that side of the bed.... What the heck...
The only thing it could be is the zipper on my pillow --- but I"m not convinced that is what it is... It might be a paranormal experience. Whoa.

Google says that blood stains will come out with a tsp of dish soap and a cup of hydrogen peroxide and blot it out - wash in cold and hang to dry. Ben thinks spit works fine.

I'll let you know how it turns it out...

Lesson: Get some red sheets and a library book on ghosts.

Las Vegas Weekend

This weekend Ben had to go to the a pharmacy - residency conference. 30,000 pharmacists at the Venetian - the largest gathering pharmacists in the country.

We were able to get very very cheap plane tickets so I got to come along! We got a hotel room in the wedding chapel district :) and rented this nice little Aveo!

Saturday we got Ben checked in to the conference and did a little walking around 'the strip'. Sharples are not Vegas people. We had top restaurant options around us and what do we pick? IHOP! Eggnog pancakes. High class, huh

We walked from one end to the other and one of the things that Ben was excited about - Trying the 16 differnt sodas from around the world!

Ben's pointing to his winner - the mint spirte.
The coke building.
Good ol' Belaigo.
Sunday morning - Ben's getting ready for the conference! Good Luck Babe!